1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a floor panel, in particular a laminated floor panel. The invention also relates to a floor covering consisting of a plurality of mutually coupled floor panels according to the invention. The invention further relates to a method for mutually coupling two floor panels, in particular laminated floor panels, according to the invention.
2. Description of Related Art
The last ten years has seen enormous advance in the market for laminate for hard floor covering. An important aspect during the product development of the laminate is the facility with which a laminated floor can be laid. The American patent U.S. Pat. No. 6,490,836 describes a laminate consisting of floor panels which can be mutually coupled, wherein the coupling of two floor panels can be realized by having the floor panels engage each other at an angle, followed by tilting the floor panels relative to each other, whereby the floor panels can in fact be hooked into each other. Although the known laminate can be laid relatively easily by a user, the known floor covering also has a number of drawbacks. A significant drawback of the known floor covering is that, due to the tilting movement required to realize the coupling, relatively great forces are exerted on the floor parts, which can result in permanent damage (breakage). Another drawback of the known laminate is that a relatively large amount of space is required to enable mutual coupling of the floor panels, which makes coupling of a floor panel to an adjacent floor panel considerably more difficult, or even impossible, in a limited space, such as for instance close to a wall or under a radiator.